While a fight against former undisputed junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford looms in the distance, WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn might actually take a fight against fellow countryman Anthony Mundine.
Dean Lonergan spoke with AAP and was highly critical of Crawford's ability to sell a fight and that Horn might be thinking of taking a fight with Mundine, which would get Horn a reported $2 million payday.
"Fighting's only half the game. The other half is media. Without it you don't get paid. Terence Crawford is pound-for-pound the world's toughest fighter but he is the worst of all worlds, a really tough fight but not a big money fight. The reason is he's absolutely poor in the media, he's not a great communicator. As a result he doesn't have a great following, doesn't sell a lot of tickets, and doesn't do a lot of pay-per-views," Lonergan said.
Horn recently wrapped up his title defense, scoring a TKO victory over Gary Corcoran in Australia. Horn won the title from Manny Pacquiao earlier this year and his next mandatory defense will be against Crawford. Crawford vacating his unified junior welterweight titles, which included the WBO title, meaning Crawford automatically gets mandatory challenger status for the WBO welterweight title.
Mundine is schedule to fight Tommy Browne on January 17 for the vacant WBO Oriental middleweight title, meaning a potential Horn vs. Mundine fight wouldn’t take place until next spring at the earliest and would most likely take place at 154 pounds as Mundine probably won’t be able to make the 147-pound welterweight limit.
